


you will see

by Nerd_of_Camelot



Series: given time, [5]
Category: Jak and Daxter
Genre: Childhood Memories, Gen, Introspection, Jak-Centric, Past Relationship(s), Self-Reflection, and walkin, none of the other characters are actually there it's just jak thinkin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-23
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:15:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24879064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nerd_of_Camelot/pseuds/Nerd_of_Camelot
Summary: Jak went looking for the royal archives.Jak thought about family.
Relationships: Damas & Jak (Jak and Daxter), Daxter & Jak, Daxter & Keira Hagai & Jak, Explorer | Jak's Uncle & Jak (Jak and Daxter), Jak & Samos Hagai
Series: given time, [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1795468
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	you will see

Jak didn’t cherish going behind his ally’s backs to find something.

Thing was, though, he had a better chance of finding out if there  _ were _ still royal archives and finding out where the hell they were by going and looking for them on his own. He didn’t trust Ashelin to give a straight or honest answer to any inquiries and he couldn’t chance asking anyone else.

So, getting out of bed and moving Daxter onto the pillow from where he’d been on his chest as quietly as he could, he pulled on his clothes and his armor. He might need both. Might not. And then he slipped out of the apartment above the bar, then out of the bar altogether.

And he took to walking the streets.

It felt weird to be by himself, considering he and Daxter were practically inseparable again lately. Daxter made him happy, and he was selfish enough to want Daxter around  _ all the time _ to do that. Not that Daxter seemed to care. He’d probably been more bothered by  _ not _ being around Jak 24/7.

Jak wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case.

And he wouldn’t be surprised if Daxter was a little angry with him later for not bringing him along on this little excursion, but…

Hm.

This just felt like something he was supposed to be doing on his own. Something he  _ shouldn’t _ take Daxter along for. Especially if it turned out to be a fool’s errand, and it had been nothing but a dream, after all.

He had to cling to hope that it wasn’t. That there was some truth to the memories his mind had provided to him while he was asleep.

If he remembered  _ nothing else, _ he wanted to remember something like this. Something important. Something that could help someone else, but mostly something that would give him clues to what his family was like.

He’d wondered about that ever since he found out that he was the same kid that they were sending back to Sandover. The same little prince.

What was his family like? Who did he have before Haven went to shit?

And now knowing that his father was Damas… Well, he was evermore curious.

And he thought, maybe, he was feeling something other than curiosity.

Because his chest felt sludgy in a way that the rot didn’t make him feel. His stomach was rolling and he felt  _ cold. _

… He was  _ scared. _

He wanted to find out about this. He wasn’t sure if he was scared of not finding anything, or if he was scared of what he would find. Or something else entirely.

… Funny how it was always the negative emotions that came to him without weeks and months of sorting through it and trying to figure it out.

He shook his head, shook away the thoughts and distractions, and kept looking.

He walked through the city slowly. Searched from one end to the other, even through the wreckage still left over by all that mess so many months ago. Even through parts where he did, as he’d expected, have to get into fights.

And it was in the wreckage somewhere off to the side of the palace, half-hidden by fallen rubble and so far off the beaten path that no one but someone who’d been living in the palace would have ever seen it.

Ashelin  _ probably _ knew it was here.

Frowning, and feeling sludgy enough somewhere in his guts that he wasn’t sure if it was fear or rot at this point, he ducked under a chunk of rubble to get to the front door.

_ Archive, _ it read, in neat, hand-carved Precursor font above the door, and the -hive had been what caught his eye. Each side of the door bore a separate phrase, also in Precursor but definitely far more  _ recent _ than the main one―the left side read,  _ The Blood of Mar is sacred, only those possessing it are permitted within, _ while the right said,  _ Take care, those who seek power will seek your Blood. _

Jak’s mind flashed with the image of― _ Veger, _ his name was, trying to make him tell him his password to this. Had that been real, he wondered?

The other bit with the archive seemed to have been.

But the only way to know for sure that he’d remembered any of it  _ right _ was to try and enter his password.

And he very much wanted to know for sure.

And yet, he hesitated.

He stood before the door, not close enough for it to open on the off-chance it was automatic like so many other things in Haven, and he stared at the inscriptions. His stomach rolled and, feeling somewhat self-conscious, he pressed a hand to his gut. Pushed the heel of his hand against the worst of the rolling and tried to take a deep breath.

He thought he may have preferred to do this when all he felt under duress like this was empty or rotting or angry. When there wasn’t anything else hanging around in his head and heart and making him so…

So  _ nervous. _

And yet, he knew he wouldn’t have remembered this before.

_ Clearly. _

He hadn’t remembered it until this morning, weeks after he started to be able to feel happy and fond again and know what they were.

He imagined that was because he needed his current full range of emotions to feel attached to the dream, and if he didn’t feel attached he wouldn’t ever seek out the archives except to see if they were really even there. There’d been such a full-bodied  _ love _ for Damas in those memories that he was still a little blown away.

Even if he was already having trouble recalling the details of the memories, he remembered  _ that _ and that was a lot of the reason, he thought, that he’d gotten out of bed immediately.

He needed to know if that feeling had been  _ real. _

If there’d been a time, no matter how brief, where he’d  _ known _ his family. Where he’d known them and  _ loved them _ and been  _ loved by them. _

Having Daxter and Samos and Keira and his ‘uncle’ the explorer back in Sandover was different. They were his ‘family’ but they weren’t the  _ same. _ Not to him. He’d grown up knowing there was something  _ off _ about only having them and having  _ no memory of his so-called uncle. _ And given he’d always seen Samos as more of a teacher than a father, but the closest thing he had to a dad anyway… Well. That just made things with Keira more complicated than they’d had to be until he was old enough to think,  _ Eh, what does it matter if she’s actually his daughter? It’s not like he’s really my dad. _

… This was different.

This was his only chance to know the family he’d had before Praxis and Veger and the other Council members threw his father out like they’d thrown him out later.

And believe him, he was happy with just Daxter.

He was  _ completely _ satisfied with his best friend being pretty much all he had, because Daxter was a  _ lot _ and Jak had always liked that about him. He was a lot and he was honest and he’d stick by Jak through anything.

That was better than he could say for a lot of the people he knew. Even people he’d known longer, like Samos.

Samos had a  _ long _ history of telling him he couldn’t do something, never offering a reason why, and then getting mad at him when he did it anyway because if Samos couldn’t come up with a better reason than “because I said so” then it couldn’t be that bad. He also had a long history of having him train day in and day out on his Eco channeling abilities and just tossing some Blue or Green Eco his way when he got tired or hurt without much emotional connection to it.

And Jak loved him through all of it.

He knew he had.

And he still loved him now, but…

Maybe he was just starting to realize that Samos had kind of sucked and  _ not _ just where Daxter was concerned.

He bit his lip, hard, looking up at the inscription above the door again.

… No time like the present.

He pushed himself away from the rock he’d been standing next to, walked as straight-backed as he could to the door. It slid half-open, and he squeezed into the space it offered.

Before he got more than a couple of steps inside, a glowing screen appeared directly in front of his face.

_ “Welcome, Blood of Mar. Please enter your password.” _ A voice, somewhere above him, intoned.

He just had to hope he’d had a chance to enter it at some point, because otherwise he was screwed on this.

He lifted his hand and he typed out,  _ family. _

He hit enter, swallowed hard. Held his breath.

There was a terrifying moment of silence, and then the lights came on overhead all at once, screen vanishing and a separate one appearing much further away at the end of the room. And that one was  _ huge. _

_ “Welcome, Prince Mar.” _ The voice said, sounding pleased,  _ “The archives are at your disposal.” _

**Author's Note:**

> The words for this one are frightening/lie/secretive
> 
> And so the plot... Begins?  
> I dunno, there's several more of these but this is something I had been wanting to touch on already maybe in a different fic but since this little ficlet series grew a plot anyway this fit right on in with it and gave me fuel for the fire
> 
> Thanks to all y'all who are reading <3


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